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HARDWICKE, PHILIP YORKE, 1ST EARL

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Originally appearing in Volume V12, Page 946 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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HARDWICKE, See also:PHILIP See also:YORKE, 1ST See also:EARL of (1690—1764), See also:English See also:lord See also:chancellor, son of Philip Yorke, an See also:attorney, was See also:born at See also:Dover, on the 1st of See also:December 1690. Through his See also:mother, See also:Elizabeth, daughter and co-heiress of See also:Richard See also:Gibbon of Rolvenden, See also:Kent, he was connected with the See also:family of Gibbon the historian. At the See also:age of fourteen, after a not very thorough See also:education at a private school at Bethnal See also:Green, where, however, he showed exceptional promise, he entered an attorney's See also:office in See also:London. Here he gave some See also:attention to literature and the See also:classics as well as to See also:law; but in the latter he made such progress that his employer, Salkeld, impressed by Yorke's See also:powers, entered him at the See also:Middle See also:Temple in See also:November 1708; and soon after-wards recommended him to Lord See also:Chief See also:Justice See also:Parker (after-wards earl of See also:Macclesfield) as law See also:tutor to his sons. In 1715 he was called to the See also:bar, where his progress was, says Lord See also:Campbell, " more rapid than that of any other debutant in the See also:annals of our profession," his See also:advancement being greatly furthered by the patronage of Macclesfield, who became lord chancellor in 1718, when Yorke transferred his practice from the See also:king's See also:bench to the See also:court of See also:chancery, though he continued to go on the western See also:circuit. In the following See also:year he established his reputation as an See also:equity lawyer in a See also:case in which See also:Sir See also:Robert See also:Walpole's family was interested, by an See also:argument displaying profound learning and See also:research concerning the See also:jurisdiction of the chancellor, on lines which he afterwards more fully See also:developed in a celebrated See also:letter to Lord See also:Kames on the distinction between law and equity. Through Macclesfield's See also:influence with the See also:duke of See also:Newcastle Yorke entered See also:parliament in 1719 as member for See also:Lewes, and was appointed See also:solicitor-See also:general, with a See also:knighthood, in 1720, although he was then a See also:barrister of only four years' See also:standing. His conduct of the See also:prosecution of See also:Christopher Layer in that year for See also:treason as a Jacobite further raised Sir Philip Yorke's reputation as a forensic orator; and in 1723, having already become attorney-general, he passed through the See also:House of See also:Commons the See also:bill of pains and penalties against See also:Bishop See also:Atterbury. He was excused, on the ground of his See also:personal friendship, from acting for the See also:crown in the ,See also:impeachment of Macclesfield in 1725, though he did not exert himself to See also:save his See also:patron from disgrace largely brought about by Macclesfield's partiality for Yorke himself. He soon found a new and still more influential patron in the duke of Newcastle, to whom he henceforth gave his See also:political support. He rendered valuable service to Walpole's See also:government by his support of the bill for prohibiting loans to See also:foreign powers (1730), of the increase of the See also:army (1732) and of the See also:excise bill (1733). In 1733 Yorke was appointed lord chief justice of the king's bench, with the See also:title of Lord Hardwicke, and was sworn of the privy See also:council; and in 1737 he succeeded See also:Talbot as lord chancellor, thus becoming a member of Sir Robert Walpole's See also:cabinet.

One of his first See also:

official acts was to deprive the poet See also:Thomson of a small office conferred on him by Talbot. Hardwicke's political importance was greatly increased by his removal to the House of Lords, where the incompetency of Newcastle threw on the chancellor the See also:duty of defending the See also:measures of the government. He resisted See also:Carteret's See also:motion to reduce the army in 1738, and the resolutions hostile to See also:Spain over the affair of See also:Captain See also:Jenkins's ears. But when Walpole See also:bent before the See also:storm and declared See also:war against Spain, Hardwicke advocated energetic measures for its conduct; and he tried to keep the See also:peace between Newcastle and Walpole. There is no sufficient ground for See also:Horace Walpole's See also:charge that the fall of Sir Robert was brought about by Hardwicke's treachery. No one was more surprised than himself when he retained the chancellorship in the following See also:administration, and he resisted the proposal to indemnify witnesses against Walpole in one of his finest speeches in May 1742. He exercised a leading influence in the See also:Wilmington Cabinet; and when Wilmington died in See also:August 1743, it was Hardwicke who put forward See also:Henry See also:Pelham for the vacant office against the claims of Pulteney. For many years from this See also:time he was the controlling See also:power in the government. During the king's absences on the See also:continent Hardwicke was See also:left at the See also:head of the council of regency; it thus See also:fell to him to See also:concert measures for dealing with the Jacobite rising in 1745. He took a just view of the crisis, and his policy for See also:meeting it was on the whole statesmanlike. After See also:Culloden he presided at the trial of the Scottish Jacobite peers, his conduct of which, though judicially impartial, was neither dignified nor generous; and he must be held partly responsible for the unnecessary severity meted out to the rebels, and especially for the cruel, though not illegal, executions on obsolete attainders of See also:Charles See also:Radcliffe and (in 1953) of See also:Archibald See also:Cameron. He carried, however, a See also:great reform in 1746, of incalculable benefit to See also:Scotland, which swept away the See also:grave abuses of feudal power surviving in that See also:country in the See also:form of private heritable jurisdictions in the hands of the landed gentry.

On the other See also:

hand his legislation in 1748 for disarming the Highlanders and prohibiting the use of the See also:tartan in their See also:dress was vexatious without being effective. Hardwicke supported See also:Chesterfield's reform of the See also:calendar in 1751; in 1753 his bill for legalizing the See also:naturalization of See also:Jews in See also:England had to be dropped on See also:account of the popular clamour it excited; but he successfully carried a salutary reform of the See also:marriage law, which became the basis of all subsequent legislation on the subject. On the See also:death of Pelham in 1754 Hardwicke obtained for Newcastle the See also:post of See also:prime See also:minister, and for See also:reward was created earl of Hardwicke and See also:Viscount See also:Royston; and when in November 1756 the weakness of the See also:ministry and the threatening aspect of foreign affairs compelled Newcastle to resign, Hardwicke retired with him. He played an important and disinterested See also:part in negotiating the See also:coalition between Newcastle and See also:Pitt in 1757, when he accepted a seat in Pitt's cabinet without returning to the See also:woolsack. After the See also:accession of See also:George III. Hardwicke opposed the ministry of Lord See also:Bute on the peace with See also:France in 1762, and on the See also:cider tax in the following year. In the Wilkes case Hardwicke condemned general warrants, and also the See also:doctrine that seditious libels published by members of parliament were protected by See also:parliamentary See also:privilege. He died in London on the 6th of See also:March 1764. Although for a lengthy See also:period Hardwicke was an influential minister, he was not a statesman of the first See also:rank. On the other hand he was one of the greatest See also:judges who ever sat on the English bench. He did not, indeed, by his three years' See also:tenure of the chiefjusticeship of the king's bench leave any impress on the See also:common law; but Lord Campbell pronounces him " the most consummate See also:judge who ever sat in the court of chancery, being distinguished not only for his rapid and satisfactory decision of the causes which came before him, but for the profound and enlightened principles which he laid down, and for perfecting English equity into a systematic See also:science." He held the office of lord chancellor longer than any of his predecessors, with a single exception; and the same high authority quoted above asserts that as an equity judge Lord Hardwicke's fame " has not been exceeded by that of any See also:man in See also:ancient or See also:modern times. His decisions have been, and ever will continue to be, appealed to as fixing the limits and establishing the principles of the great juridical See also:system called Equity, which now not only in this country and in our colonies, but over the whole extent of the See also:United States of See also:America, regulates See also:property and personal rights more than the ancient common law."' Hardwicke had prepared himself for this great and enduring service to English See also:jurisprudence by study of the See also:historical See also:foundations of the chancellor's equitable jurisdiction, combined with profound ' Lord Campbell, Lives of the Lord Chancellors, v.

43 (London, 1846).insight into legal principle, and a thorough knowledge of the See also:

Roman See also:civil law, the principles of which he scientifically incorporated into his administration of English equity in the See also:absence of precedents bearing on the causes submitted to his See also:judgment. His decisions on particular points in dispute were based on general principles, which were neither so wide as to prove in-applicable to future circumstances, nor too restricted to serve as the See also:foundation for a coherent and scientific system. His recorded judgments—which, as Lord Campbell observes, " certainly do come up to every See also:idea we can form of judicial excellence "—combine luminous method of arrangement with elegance and lucidity of See also:language. Nor was the creation of modern English equity Lord Hardwicke's only service to the administration of justice. Born within two years of the death of Judge See also:Jeffreys his influence was powerful in obliterating the evil traditions of the judicial bench under the See also:Stuart See also:monarchy, and in establishing the modern conception of the duties and demeanour of English judges. While still at the bar Lord Chesterfield praised his conduct of crown prosecutions as a contrast to the former " bloodhounds of the crown "; and he described Sir Philip Yorke as " naturally humane, moderate and decent." On the bench he had See also:complete See also:control over his See also:temper; he was always urbane and decorous and usually dignified. His exercise of legal patronage -deserves unmixed praise. As a public man he was upright and, in comparison with most of his contemporaries, consistent. His domestic See also:life- was happy and' virtuous. His chief See also:fault was avarice, which perhaps makes it the more creditable that, though a colleague of Walpole, he was never suspected of corruption. But he had a keen and steady See also:eye to his own See also:advantage, and hd was said to be jealous of all who might become his rivals for power. His See also:manners, too, were arrogant.

Lord See also:

Waldegrave said of Hardwicke that " he might have been thought a great man had he been less avaricious, less proud, less unlike a See also:gentle-man." Although in his youth he contributed to the Spectator over the See also:signature " Philip Homebred," he seems See also:early to have abandoned all care for literature, and he has been reproached by Lord Campbell and others with his neglect of See also:art and letters. He married, on the 16th of May 1719, See also:Margaret, daughter of Charles Cocks (by his wife See also:Mary, See also:sister of Lord Chancellor See also:Somers), and widow of See also:John Lygon, by whom he had five sons and two daughters. His eldest daughter, Elizabeth, married Lord See also:Anson; and the second, Margaret, married Sir See also:Gilbert See also:Heathcote. Three of his younger sons attained some distinction. Charles Yorke (q.v.), the second son, became like his See also:father lord chancellor; the third, See also:Joseph, was a diplomatist, and was created Lord Dover; while See also:James, the fifth son, became bishop of See also:Ely. Hardwicke was succeeded in the earldom by his eldest son, PHILIP YORKE (1720-1795), 2nd earl of Hardwicke, born on the 19th of March 1720, and educated at See also:Cambridge. In 1741 he became a See also:fellow of the Royal Society. With his See also:brother, Charles Yorke, he was one of the chief contributors to Athenian Letters; or the Epistolary See also:Correspondence of an See also:agent of the King of See also:Persia residing at See also:Athens during the. Peloponnesian War (4 vols., London, 1741), a See also:work that for many years had a considerable See also:vogue and went through several See also:editions. He sat in the House of Commons as member for See also:Reigate (1741-1747), and afterwards for See also:Cambridgeshire; and he kept notes of the debates which were afterwards embodied in See also:Cobbett's Parliamentary See also:History. He was styled Viscount Royston from 1754 till 1764, when he succeeded.to the earldom. In politics he supported the Rocking-See also:ham Whigs.

He held the office of See also:

teller of the See also:exchequer, and was lord-See also:lieutenant of Cambridgeshire and high steward of Cambridge University. He edited a quantity of See also:miscellaneous See also:state papers and correspondence, to be found in See also:MSS. collections in the See also:British Museum. He died in London, on the 16th of May 1790. He married Jemima Campbell, only daughter of John, 3rd earl of See also:Breadalbane, and granddaughter and heiress of Henry de See also:Grey, duke of Kent, who became in her own right marchioness de Grey.

End of Article: HARDWICKE, PHILIP YORKE, 1ST EARL

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